Forge World Open Day 2017 – Necromunda, New Toys & Nice Times in Nottingham

Hello all! I have returned from a smashing (if a little exhausting) weekend in Nottingham and I have many tales to tell. It was a great event as always and I have plenty of pictures to share with you, including, yes, Necromunda minis (which you’ll no doubt have seen yourselves by now) but I can’t tell you how excited I am about the return of that old favourite. But before I get all giddy over that, let’s start at the beginning.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Nottingham is a fantastically pretty town and the first thing I did was head to the pub, and then another, and then another. This was on Saturday and after a very fun night out in some lovely bars and more pubs, I spent the night in the Ibis hotel which was very pleasant indeed – I would recommend it to any looking to stay in Nottingham. Simple, comfortable, clean and in a good location. The next morning, after a slap-up breakfast at Annie’s (seriously, screw your hotel breakfast and go here instead) we set off down the canal to Warhammer World.

It really is a very pretty little walk and a good way to burn off some of the amazing breakfast before reaching Warhammer world (it’s about 1.5 miles from the town centre). Once there, I have this tip for anyone attending; if you’re not there to buy something being released on the day, don’t bother getting there too early or standing in the queue. Go and chill out for a bit. Admire the rhino, or the space marine statue, or sit down in the lovely little garden they have there and soak in the sun and the atmosphere.

Once in line, we received a flyer and our lanyard and that’s when we got the news. The flyer for the day had a nice big fold out of the Escher ganger featured in the Necromunda marketing material. Oh, the excitement. But we’ll get to that shortly. As soon as I was through the doors I set off for the Forge World store to bagsy my buy from the day (more on that later too) and then over to the Painting Competition area to get my Leviathan installed on the vehicles shelf.

It looked a bit lonely at the time but the cabinet filled up eventually so he had some company. And then it was into the design studio, and first up was this…

Great artwork! But getting to see the miniatures was even better…

Yes, you’ve seen them all in the post on Warhammer Community but I can’t tell you how good these looked in the flesh. My pictures don’t do them justice, partly because of the scrum around them to get images – they were like Hollywood stars on the red carpet! And the guys there were very happy to share some great info:

The scale will pretty much match the old miniatures – the Escher ladies might be a bit taller but only because they can model heels now which they couldn’t do in metal all those years ago.

The game will continue to get support – this won’t just be a boxed game release.

The rules will be unique and defined, but will match 8th Edition in many ways.

All good there then! I’d been hoping to see some Heresy Blood Angels stuff on the day, but I understand why they’d be holding that back – Necromunda was stealing everything’s limelight. I seriously cannot wait until later in the year when this comes out. Expect H&H to go very Underhive heavy for a few months at least.

One bit of other news though is that Adeptus Titanicus may be a bit further off than we thought. Necromunda hasn’t pushed it back, but apparently there’s just so much to do and they want to do the best job with it. Necromunda was always on the slate for the release slot it’s going to have, and I’m glad they’re putting the hours and effort into nailing the rebirth of the epic game.

Blood Bowl was next up and the Elf Team is coming along very nicely. Expect to see this coming soon to a blood-soaked pitch near you:

And the snow covered pitch was looking rather good too…

And then there were all of the new releases that were on show that day. The Orion dropship for the Custodes appeared to be getting the most ‘Ooo’s and it was certainly a beast – bigger than I expected, certainly. Here it is next to a Thunderhawk:

And in fact, the Legio Custodes are now really starting to look like a proper army. The dreads and new terminators have filled their ranks fantastically…

The new Sicarans are also looking pretty darn solid and the new variants were on show as well, alongside the older versions.

After all the ooh-ing and aah-ing in this part of the hall, I went back to the painting competition to check on my entrant and scope out the competitors. It then struck me that something was indeed different this year. Firstly, there were a lot more gaming tables in use with huge knight and titan battles featuring on several. It’s great to see the gaming element return to days like this. Secondly, and it may have been because of the gaming, the event didn’t seem quite as busy. Still hugely popular, but there seemed to be a little more space, and fewer enormous queues which was great. It also meant that there were fewer entrants in the painting competition than last year, but the standard was still incredibly high.

Alas, there were now a fair few red Leviathans in there and my chap no longer stood out. Eventually the competition was won by the Lightning Strike Fighter that you can see there and it was a very worthy winner – incredible details. Alas, I didn’t catch the name of the winner but it was well deserved. I did overhear a couple of people lauding my effort and that certainly put a smile on my face. Always good to hear that.

Next up, I popped into the hall of miniatures. I won’t show you everything in there (I’ve highlighted much of it before) but I’ll show you a new bit and a couple of well angled shots of some old favourites. The karadr-, the Kharhad-, the krh-, The steam punk space dwarves attacking the forces of Death was a particular favourite of the new batch:

And, as mentioned, I got some shots of a couple of oldies-but-goodies from some tasty angles as well. See below…

And then I just wanted to share this. I remember the release of this chariot so vividly from my youth, and the Necromancer that you can see standing at the back there was among the first miniatures I ever painted. I love seeing this retro-hammer stuff in these halls. Always a pleasure.

And that was about it for the day. We lunched at Bugmans of course and while delicious, I do have to say that we as community, and I include myself in this, are not the leanest nor most svelte of peoples. And the menu at Bugmans does not help. Delicious yes, but everything is dripping with grease and cheese. The amount of Ogre Burgers being devoured was almost obscene. A few more healthy options would be greatly appreciated.

On the way out I took a quick snap of the 8th Edition box set miniatures duking it out in yet another great diorama.

A great day out and loads of fun. I quick pub stop and a short and comfortable train journey home and that was that. I’d like to thank the folks at Forge World and Warhammer World for putting on yet another excellent day. And I of course came back with a little something to add to my Grey Tide for future painting. I shall look forward to that, and I hope you enjoyed my run down of the day in this post. Onwards!

Hi Paul – you’re not the first person to say that to me and I know what you mean re the headdress but by all accounts she is an Escher. But given Ratskins popularity, I dare say we’ll be seeing a few of their type scurrying around the Underhive before too long. 🙂

I’d recommend popping along yourself if you’ve not been before. There are some incredibly talented painters out there so I never go in to these things expecting a win. But it’s great to hear your work getting compliments, and it’s encouraging to look at in the cabinet and think ‘Yeah, that doesn’t look out of place here’. It’s like, if your football team finish 15th in the Premiership, it may seem like a poor show, but you’re still in the top league in the country. Not that I’m saying I’m in the top league of painters (far from it!) but it’s just encouraging to be in the mix. 🙂